[MD] Metaphysics and the mystic.

[david buchanan]

Ron said to dmb:

...I guess what I'm asking is what you mean generally in both instances by using the term "to know" as it refers to both "directly and immediately"  and as opposed to "intelligibly".  I mean I know the distinction drawn and I understand why, but just let me play devils advocate for a bit. In what sense does the term "to know" differ?

dmb says:
Basically it is the difference between knowing by direct acquaintance (like a loved-one's face) and third-person knowledge or information or abstract concepts. Remember that thought experiment wherein a person spent a lifetime studying the color red through all kinds of books and such but lived that life in a completely colorless room. The day she steps outside for the first time and actually sees red for herself, that's when she will be directly acquainted with "red", as opposed to knowing it conceptually.

Somewhere, Pirsig explains this by pointing out that the German language has two separate words for "know".